Promoting Leadership Principles in Product Management

Five factors to inspiring team members

We all know people who inspire us, who encourage us—through their actions and example—to work hard, to persevere through difficult circumstances. What’s their secret? How do they persuade others to do great things? While every circumstance is different, leaders find ways to inspire the people they lead.

Here are five factors[1] that, if understood and applied, will increase your ability to inspire your team members:

Create: Create the vision. Take the long-term view of where your organization needs to go. Give the team something to aspire towards and get excited about.

Guide: Take it upon yourself to set your teams’ direction. Teach them how to become successful in their jobs. Spend ample amounts of time showing them how them the way to success.

Motivate: Share your optimism and energy. Show your confidence. The team will feed off your energy, your example. They will sense—then follow—your motives, so keep it positive.

Build: Develop your team members. Provide opportunities for them to grow. Give them direction and create structure and process to channel the growth of team members.

Act: Don’t wait, don’t hesitate; get moving and show them the way. In their best selling The Leadership Challenge, authors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner sum it up with a simple acronym: DWYSYWD: “do what you say you will do.” It’s that simple.

Leaders who understand and apply these factors will inspire their teams to great new heights.

—The Product Management Perspective: As the product manager you play a key role in inspiring team members to give their best work to your product. Be the creator, the motivator. Set the example of optimism and enthusiasm for your product and your coworkers will feed off it and get pumped up about the work they’re doing.

[1] The term ‘factor’ has many definitions depending on the context. In this context, similar to that of past articles, the term factor denotes a doer or maker, or influences that contribute to produce a result.